Cankarjeva 1/II1000 Ljubljana

E-mail: sim@zdruzenje-sim.si
Tel. No: +386 (0)1 24 10 280
Fax: +386 (0)1 42 51 673

The president: Sergij Pelhan
The Chief Secretary: Janez Rogelj

Slovene Emigrant Association is a voluntary based, non-profit organization of physical persons who have gathered together and joined the association due to shared interests in developing, promoting, strengthening and building relations between Slovenes in the homeland and abroad. It was established in 1951 with the aim to establish relations between then People’s Republic of Slovenia with Slovene emigrants, workers abroad and their descendants, to cooperate with them in maintaining Slovene cultural tradition.
The main aim and the basic goals of the Slovene Emigrant Association are as follows: implementing activities that promote national identity of Slovenes around the world, in particular their descendants by means of developing, promoting and strengthening values of cultural creativity.
The Association is one of the central organizations for relations with Slovenes around the world. It organizes visits of Slovene cultural groups in places where Slovenes around the world are found, it provides material for the emigrant cultural groups such as choir, traditional dance groups and other. The Slovene Emigrant Association also takes care in informing Slovene public on the emigrant activities, organizes visits and exhibitions of emigrant cultural groups in Slovenia thus presenting activities and art achievements of Slovenes in emigration.

The initiative to establish Slovene Emigrant Association (hereinafter referred to as SIM) was placed by American Slovenes on the occasion of the first visit of the Slovene cultural group in the USA that took place after the WWII: In November 1953, the Slovene Emigrant Calendar 1954 and the Cultural and Literature Publication for Slovenes around the world were published. This, undoubtedly central publication on the Slovene emigration issue was published until the year of 2004.  

In 1954, SIM started with the publication of the monthly magazine Rodna gruda which for many years has remained the only specialized magazine dedicated to Slovenes living around the world. The magazine, which included summaries in English and Spanish language, was published for 50 years and was very popular among Slovenes around the world. In May 2004, we started with the publication of the magazine Slovenija.svet., which continued to be published until the end of 2005.

The communication activity was, besides assistance on the visits of emigrant groups in the homeland, one of the main activities of the SIM. The relations with the emigrant organizations in the USA, Canada, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, were established; later, in the 60s of the 20th century, relations were also established with the new economic emigrants living in Germany, Switzerland, Australia and elsewhere.  
Upon the initiative of our association, in 1959 the choir group Slovenski octet was formed which went on the first visit among Slovene emigrants in the USA in 1964. Many more visits were followed later on the other continents.

In 1987, SIM started to publish the magazine Slovenia in English language dedicated to the descendants of Slovene emigrants which is also a general promotional magazine of the Republic of Slovenia. The magazine is published quarterly.
After independence, SIM was promoting relations with Slovene associations in Croatia and co-founded associations of Slovenes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, ZRJ and Macedonia.

Since 1956, emigrant events (picnics), called “Meetings in my land”, are organized annually with a rich cultural offer for the Slovene public in Slovenia and to the emigrants (for example, this year, the colony of artists with the art exhibition was organized in Most na Soči).


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